Kazuma Kuwabara
Kazuma Kuwabara (桑原和真, Kuwabara Kazuma?) is a fictional character in the popular anime and manga series YuYu Hakusho created by Yoshihiro Togashi in 1990.
Kuwabara's seiyū is Shigeru Chiba. His English voice actors are Christopher Sabat in the FUNimation dub, Lex Lang in the Media Blasters dub, Cliff Lazenby in the US Manga Corps dub and Russell Wait in the Spirit Animax dub.
BackgroundKuwabara, as most people call him, is the second-toughest kid in Sarayashiki Junior High School and is always trying to usurp Yusuke Urameshi's position as the toughest. In the manga(chp.1) he says he never lost a fight until he met Yusuke.He leads a gang consisting of himself, Kirishima, Okubo, and Sawamura (In the English dub, Komada). He has a soft spot for kittens (including his own, Eikichi) and an iron code of honor. He develops a minor crush on Botan when he first meets her, but later harbors intense feelings on the ice apparition Yukina, but is unaware that she is Hiei's sister.
Kuwabara has a tough older sister named Shizuru Kuwabara. She and Yukina are the only characters known to call him by his given name. In the anime, Kazuma and Shizuru's parents never appear and are rarely, if ever, even acknowledged. His father does makes a brief appearance in the final volume of the manga to reveal that Yukina is going to be living with them and appears to be aware of the Reikai, etc. As the show progress, Kuwabara's and Yusuke's relationship evolves from rivals to best friends, although the two still disagree constantly. Kuwabara and Kurama are quite cordial with each other, but Kuwabara shares no love for Hiei, and both will readily mention their hatred of the other, although in truth deep down they are friends.
Kuwabara's most unusual ability is his sensitivity to Reiki, or Spirit Awareness. He and his band of friends call this "the Tickle." Kuwabara has the ability to sense when ghosts and the paranormal are around, can see spirits and other demons, and can predict motives of others. Kuwabara can also create a blade out of his own spirit energy (known as the Rei Ken, or Spirit Sword). Although he first needed a piece of wood as a physical entity to create it, Kuwabara was able to practice and be able to create his own after one month (six months in the English anime). During his training, Kuwabara's sword is able to extend and shrink to his whim, and he can even create two, one in each hand.
Kuwabara is not as strong as the rest of his teammates, but can be quite crafty in battle when he needs to be, and he is widely considered as the nicest of the four.
Spirit Detective SagaHe first went to Genkai's compound to ask for her help because of his increased spirit awareness. However he is accidentally entered in Genkai's tournament for an apprentice. He completes the first three tasks with ease, even completing the forest test first and without facing any enemies. During the fight in the darkness against Musashi, he gained the power of the rei ken. In the next round, he fought a disguised Rando who shrunk him and crushed him nearly to death.
Afterwards he accompanied Yusuke to defeat the four Saint Beasts. He fought Byakko and his beasts. He defeated the beasts by using his sword get longer attack to skew the four beasts. He then defeated Byakko by knocking him into the lava. After Yusuke defeated Suzaku, Kuwabara gave Yusuke part of his life energy to save Yusuke's life.
When Yukina was kidnapped, although he initially refused to join Yusuke on this mission, after being smitten by Yukina's beauty, Kuwabara changed his mind and led Yusuke to the captor's compound and helped to defeat the demons around the compound. Yusuke used his Reigun to fire Kuwabara at the Toguros which defeated them.
Spirit Dark Tournament SagaDuring the Ankoku Būtsukai (Dark Tournament), Kuwabara fights more full matches than the rest of his teammates, but had the biggest losing streak, although most were due to ring outs. Near the end of the Tournament, Kuwabara and Kurama are approached by Suzuki, the former leader of Team Uratogi. Suzuki gives Kuwabara an item to help him in the finals against Team Toguro. This item was the Tameshi no Ken, or Trial Sword, which allowed him to defeat Elder Toguro. During the battle with the Younger Toguro, Kuwabara faked his own death with Toguro's aid to draw out Yusuke's potential.
Chapter Black SagaDuring the first half of the Chapter Black Storyline, Kuwabara is unable to use his powers. He suspects that, like Suzuki told him, it was a side effect from using the Trial Sword. However, Genkai knows the truth: that Kuwabara was so spiritually aware, his own body was aware of Sensui's plan months before it happened, and underwent a transformation to prepare for it. Kuwabara accesses his power during the battle with Sea Man, Kiyoshi Mitarai, a human teenager who was gifted with the ability to create indestrucible monsters made of water. A human turned against his own kind by Sensui and the Chapter Black videotape, Mitarai planned to kill Kuwabara and his friends by drowning them in his monster. The inside of the beast is a separate dimension, one composed entirely of water, so physical strength is useless to escape from it. Kuwabara's powers awaken and he gains the power to slice through dimensional barriers with a new type of energy sword, the Jigen Tou, or Dimensional Blade. He slices through the monster and wounds Sea Man, saving his friends and his life.
This powerful sword, however, is what Sensui needs to destroy the barrier blocking Demon World's strongest denizens from entering the Human World. Sensui attacks, captures Kuwabara, and plans to have another human psychic, Gourmet, eat Kuwabara and gain his power, as Kuwabara would never slice the barrier willingly. However, Yusuke and team rescue him, and when Yusuke dies, Kuwabara follows Sensui into Demon World and slices the barrier open to pursue him (since Kuwabara, Hiei and Yoko Kurama's power had risen to A-class level at that point, Kuwabara had to open the barrier so they could all get through since A-class power would be held back by it. Although Sensui states the barrier only affects demon energy, which explains why he was able to pass through, and that Kuwabara would have been the only one able to pass through). But the three are no match for Sensui until a newly resurrected Yusuke showed up.
Three Kings SagaAfter his battle against Sensui is over, Kuwabara originally wishes to accompany Yusuke to Demon World when he finds out that he is going. Although he is now a fighter with an A-class power level, his older sister Shizuru convinces him to stay in Human World so he can have a future. With this coaxing, Kuwabara decides to retire from fighting permanently and focus on his schoolwork, so he can live the type of life he was meant to, after realizing that he cannot keep fighting yōkai for the rest of his life. He did however make a brief apearence in a spiritual form in Kurama's mind where he gave a cheer towards Yusuke. However before Kurama notices that it was Kuwabara's voice he had already disappeared.
At the end of the series, Kuwabara is a second year high school student at the University's prep school, called Gaikou Fuzoku High School (or Gai Tech). He has numerous female admirers, although he remains faithful to Yukina. He is also studying for his college entrance exams. His power being at A-class level, it is verified by Koenma that Kuwabara is the strongest full human fighter on earth.